JWG

Lions in Amboseli Park

June 9th, 2008

On the last day of our Safari we were in Amboseli Park at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. This park is best known for its herd of elephants (they have been extensively studied) and was one of the first preserves created in Kenya to stop the depletion of the elephant population by ivory poachers. The mountain is actually in Tanzania; it is 19,341 feet high and is an inactive volcano that is gradually losing its snow cover. In a few years if Hemingway were writing his short story he might need a different title since the snow may gone in some seasons. This picture was taken the evening before.

We came to a pride of six lions (all female) that were lying about doing nothing in particular. We waited around a bit but there was little action although some of them wandered off. So we drove away to see what else we could find. A few minutes later we returned and found that they were working on a Wildebeest. Apparently one of the pride had been stalking while we were watching. Our guide told us that they kill the Wildebeest by putting their paws over its nose and suffocating it.

Our guide also told us, when I asked how the lions, who apparently weren't actively hunting (or particularly hungry), had nonetheless managed to capture a wildebeest, that wildebeest are essentially not very bright, and this one might have wandered over out of curiosity.

But the fact that we saw six lions when the first picture was taken, and there were seven after they had caught the wildebeest, does suggest that the seventh one had gotten behind the wildebeest and driven it over to the rest of the pride.